


I Think This Is Your Daughter

by Ravenclawsome



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 19:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3085205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclawsome/pseuds/Ravenclawsome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Beatrice's parents come to town for a late Christmas/New Year's Day visit, Benedick makes an alarming discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think This Is Your Daughter

_Me: You'll never guess what I found._

_Bea!: Is it a flamingo?_

_Me: Ha ha ha, not this time._

_Bea!: Okay, what did you find?_

_Me: An umbrella. COVERED IN FLAMINGOS._

_Bea!: YOU LIAR, YOU PROMISED IT WASN'T FLAMINGOS._

_Me: I PROMISED NO SUCH THING._

_Bea!: I TRUSTED YOU!_

Benedick smiled down at his phone. Even after dating for months, he still got goosebumps every time he heard Beatrice's song playing from his phone when she texted him.

Benedick had gone downtown to renew his driver's license, (it was a good thing they hadn't asked him about his animal homicide record, because he'd hit another bird on his way there),  and now he was bumming around a gift store, killing time.

He was sort of looking for something for Bea. He didn't have an incredibly strong reason for doing so, other than it was a new year and he felt like it. Unfortunately, the best thing in the store was probably the umbrella, and he'd already told her about that. Maybe he should just make her something? He wasn't exactly sure what he could make, but theirs was a pure love! No matter what he gave her, she would probably still like him.

 

_Me: You fool! I cannot be trusted when it comes to flamingos!_

Ben finished his text as he walked out the door, not paying particularly close attention to where he was going.  He was about to walk into a pole when he heard someone calling his name.

"Benedick!"

He turned around, and he felt his heart drop down into his stomach.

It was the Dukes. And not the Dukes he knew and loved, the scary Dukes. Beatrice's supposed-to-be-in-Australia parents.

Shit.

“Hi!” Benedick said, his voice pitched a good octave above where it normally was. “Hi Mrs. Duke, Mr. Duke.”

“I thought that was you!” Mrs. Duke said, jogging forward to greet him. “It’s been such a long time, you’re so tall!” She was a tall woman herself, with glasses and wavy blonde hair pulled up into a bun. Her accent was distinctly American, Benedick had almost forgotten she was foreign. Her husband came up behind her and held out his hand, which Benedick shook a little nervously.

“Good to see you Ben,” he said. Mr. Duke looked a lot like Hero, slightly shorter than his wife and round faced, but Beatrice had his eyes.

“You remember us, don’t you?” Mrs. Duke said, suddenly looking worried that she’d greeted him with too much enthusiasm.

“What? No, of course I remember you! It’s good to see you both,” Ben said, trying to pull himself together. He had distinct memories of both of Bea’s parents. Mrs. Duke was always excited about something, and she had a memory like a super computer. Benedick had mentioned his mum’s name to her in passing once at the beginning of the summer, and she’d asked about her by name three weeks later.

Bea’s dad was quieter, but once in a while he would say something hilarious out of nowhere and make everyone laugh until their sides hurt. Benedick had only met them both a few times, but he remembered really liking them. Hopefully they felt the same way...

“I thought you were in Australia, what are you doing here?” Benedick asked. It had to be a surprise visit, right? Because Bea would’ve told him if her parents were coming.

“Oh, we’re visiting Beatrice!” Mrs. Duke said, excitedly.

“And my sister,” Mr. Duke added.

“Oh yes, of course, and his sister’s family,” Mrs, Duke said. “A little late Christmas, New Years Day visit. You know Hero, don’t you? And Leo?”

“Yeah, I’m on the football team with Leo, actually,” Ben said. Why would she ask him if he knew Hero? She had to know that Beatrice and Hero were close, so there was no way he wouldn’t have met her. And especially after the whole Claudio thing- but he couldn’t assume that Beatrice had talked to them about that. He supposed they might’ve heard about it from Hero’s mums, but they probably just got the basics.

“The football team, wonderful!” Mrs. Duke said. “Beatrice used to play a lot football when she was younger.” Something changed slightly in her expression, as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to say something. Apparently she made up her mind, because she continued, “Do you see much of her? I know you two used to be good friends.”

Her words took a few seconds to sink in. Did he see much of her? Of course he-

Oh no.

 

_You’re the one for me, I know that it sounds cheesy_

 

She had to choose that moment to text him. Benedick nearly dropped the phone in his panic to turn off the sound.

“Sorry!” he said, hoping that her voice had been too quiet to be recognizable, and that Bea’s parents wouldn’t think he was a crazy person who jumped at the sound of his own ringtone. “I just, um, do you mind if I check this really quick?”

“Oh, it’s no problem. We should actually be going, I think?” Mrs. Duke said, looking over at her husband for confirmation.

“We told Bea we’d be there, oh I don’t know,” Mr. Duke checked his watch, “five minutes ago.”

“What? Lord, we’d better hurry. It was so good to see you Benedick, say hello to Alice for me!”

“I, um, I will!” Benedick said feebly, as the Dukes took off across the street, got in their car and drove away.

Benedick looked down at his phone.

 

_Bea!: You can’t be trusted when it comes to anything, dickface : P_

 

Apparently he couldn’t.

 

***

 

Benedick walked to the nearest coffee shop to sit down and catch his breath. He was trying to comprehend exactly what had just happened, but he wasn't having a lot of luck. What was blindingly obvious was the fact that, despite a full two months of dating, Beatrice hadn't told her parents about him. About them. Should he be mad? He'd told his parents about it right around the time SONG went up on Youtube, but it would've been pretty hard to keep it from them considering he lived in their house.  

But even if they lived across the world, Ben was pretty sure he would've found some way to tell them. He'd practically gone around telling everyone in town, much to Beatrice's annoyance ( _Ben, if you tell one more complete stranger that we're dating, I swear to god I will start denying that I know you._ )

His phone buzzed, he'd turned it to vibrate only.

 

_Bea!: Hey, you still there?_

 

Ben wasn't sure what to do. Part of him wanted to make her admit that she'd been hiding something from him. _I'm still here, you want to watch a movie or something? I can meet you at your place._

That seemed mean though, and a bit manipulative. He decided honesty might be the best way to go, so he picked up his phone and texted Beatrice.

 

_Me: I'm still here! I just saw your parents downtown, what’s that about?_

 

She didn't text him back for a full seven minutes.

Finally, as Ben stood up to walk back to his car, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

 

_Bea!: I’m so sorry, they only told me they were coming yesterday, and we’ve been so busy getting ready for them that I couldn’t find a good time to tell you._

Well, that answered part of his question. She was still burying the lead though, which was that _she hadn’t told her parents about him_. He tried not to feel hurt about it, but there was part of him that wanted to curl up in his bathtub and stay there forever. Why didn’t she tell them? Was she waiting to see them in person? There was a chance she could be planning to tell them today.

 _Or maybe_ , said the little voice in the back of his head, _maybe she’s embarrassed by you. Maybe her parents wouldn’t approve of you, and she doesn’t want to admit to dating such a weirdo._

Stupid voice.

 

His phone buzzed again, but when he looked down he saw that it wasn’t a text. She was calling him.

“Hey Bea,” Benedick said, picking up the phone.

“Ben, hey,” she sounded relieved. “Listen, do you want to come over and, you know, meet my parents? I mean, I know that you know them already, but… you know,” she trailed off.

“So, they know that we’re dating?” Ben asked.

Beatrice was silent.

“Bea?”

“Sorry, I’m still here.” She sounded a little panicky. “I- can we talk about this in person?”

“Bea, I know you hate that I tell people that we’re dating all the time, but I just thought-"

“Oh god, Ben it’s not that at all. I just… can you please just come over and I’ll talk to you?”

“Yeah. Yes, I’ll be right there.” Ben said.

“Okay,” she sounded relieved. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Benedick said, and he couldn’t help smiling. He didn’t think he could ever get tired of saying that. That voice in the back of his head didn't know what the hell is was talking about.

 

***

 

When he drove up to Beatrice's house, she was sitting on the front steps waiting for him. He'd barely had time to put the car in park before she sprinted over to him and knocked furiously on the window.

He pushed the door open, stepped out of the car and was immediately greeted by Beatrice throwing her arms around him.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," she said, pulling away and smiling up at him nervously.

"Where are your parents?" Ben asked, wondering uncomfortably if they could be watching from inside the house.

"Oh, they're upstairs with Hero's mums. They just found out about the vlogs, so they've been watching the 'highlights of my year,'" Bea rolled her eyes. "Hero's up there with them though, making sure they don't watch anything they don't need to."

"Like certain birthday parties?" Ben asked.

"Definitely that, but also certain bathtub vlogs. Certain songs that I most certainly did not sing," Beatrice said.

"Hate to break it to you love, but they may have gotten a snippet of that when my phone went off this afternoon."

"NO."

"YES!"

Beatrice laughed, burying her face in her hands.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Ben said, taking her hands off her face and holding them in his own."They probably didn't even recognize that it was you."

"Why, because it was so quiet?" Bea asked.

"Well, no, but they've probably never heard you say anything nice before, have they? OW!" Beatrice had hit him over the head.

“Sorry,” she said, clearly not sorry at all. “But you were asking for it.” She brushed her fingers through his hair, examining the place where she’d hit him.

“Fair enough,” said Ben, smiling down at her. She beamed back, but then her expression changed to something more serious.

“Listen, Ben, about my parents…” she began, but Ben cut her off.

“It’s fine, Bea,” he said, “you don’t have to make excuses to me about why you didn’t tell your parents. I trust you.” He really meant it. Just seeing her again reaffirmed his knowledge that they were stupidly into each other, and that was all he needed. Beatrice, however, looked determined.

“Ben, I really need to just say something, okay?” she said, gripping his hands tightly.

“Okay, yeah,” said Ben, a little apprehensively. “Go for it.” Beatrice took a deep breath, and then began.

 

“So-- and I know we have so many conversations that start this way, but you know when we were fourteen?” Ben nodded. “Right, well I know we were both sort of into each other, but you’ve admitted that you didn’t really know what you were feeling at the time, yeah?” Ben nodded again. It was true, fourteen year old Benedick had been a bit shit at understanding his emotions.

“Well,” Beatrice continued, “I did realize that I liked you. And I’ve told you that before, but what you don’t know is that I used to talk about you _all the time_. Like, almost every day.” She was avoiding his gaze, but Ben could see that she was blushing. “So my parents heard a lot about you, right? And you know my mum, she remembers everything. So… so when we weren’t friends anymore, they kept asking me about you. ‘What ever happened to Benedick,’ ‘why don’t we ever see Ben around the house anymore,’ ‘aren’t you going to say goodbye to Benedick before we leave?’ It was a nightmare, because I was trying to forget that you ever existed and they kept bringing you up.”

“Anyway, when we actually started dating,” Beatrice continued, “I wanted to tell them. I wanted to tell everyone, really. But somewhere in the back of my head, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong. The fewer people I told about us, the fewer questions I would have to answer later about ‘what happened,’ if things didn’t work out.”

She was gripping his hands very tightly, and Benedick realized he was doing the same thing.

“So do you… do you still feel like that?” Benedick asked. “Like we’re going to screw this up somehow?” He couldn’t say that the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, but things had been going so well lately…

“No!” Beatrice said quickly. “No,  I stopped worrying about that a while ago. But by then it felt awkward to say, ‘hi mum and dad, I’ve been dating this guy for a month and I didn’t mention it once,’ and then I would have to explain what happened when we were younger, and it just felt like-”

Benedick leaned down and kissed her.

“One of these days,” Beatrice said as they broke apart, “You will let me finish a damn sentence.”

“You finish plenty of sentences! Without me, you’d just keep talking until you didn’t have any-” Beatrice cut him off, pulling him close to her by his collar and kissing him again.

“You wanna come meet my parents?” Bea asked, quietly.

“Definitely,” said Ben.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I'm working on a super long story right now, so this was a fun way to take a break from that. Story title comes from the original play, MAAN.


End file.
